Microsoft warns the AI RAMmageddon could raise the price of Xbox Project Helix
Microsoft's Asha Sharma has warned that global shortages of high-bandwidth memory, driven by AI infrastructure demands, could increase the price of the upcoming Xbox Project Helix console. Despite recent positive changes under Sharma's leadership, including marketing overhauls and Game Pass pricing adjustments, hardware pricing remains a concern. The memory shortage is a widespread issue, but it poses specific challenges for Xbox's next console launch.
- ▪Asha Sharma succeeded Phil Spencer as head of Xbox in late February and has since implemented significant organizational and pricing changes.
- ▪Sharma confirmed that global shortages of high-bandwidth memory may lead to higher prices for the next Xbox console, Project Helix.
- ▪The memory shortage is largely due to increased demand from AI infrastructure development, affecting multiple industries.
- ▪Microsoft has streamlined its gaming division back into an Xbox-focused structure under Sharma's leadership.
- ▪Recent changes include the cancellation of a criticized marketing campaign and a reduction in Game Pass subscription costs.
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There’s a particular kind of disappointment that comes not from bad news, but from someone delivering bad news with a smile and calling it honesty. Asha Sharma didn’t do anything wrong when she acknowledged that global memory shortages would likely push up the price of Xbox’s next console. She was just being straight with people. And yet, for a lot of Xbox fans, it still landed like a door quietly closing on something they’d been hoping for. A new era, moving fast Say what you want about the state of Xbox right now — the person running it is not coasting. Since taking over from Phil Spencer in late February, Sharma has moved with a kind of restless energy that the brand has frankly needed for a while. A widely mocked marketing campaign got binned almost immediately.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Digital Trends.
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